Mandatory nutritional information on fast food has a small but significant effect on consumers, according to a new study published on the website of the British Medical Journal.
U.S. researchers took advantage of a 2008 New York label law that required fast food franchises to post nutritional information about their food. The researchers surveyed consumers in spring 2007 – before the law was enacted – and again in spring 2009, nine months after its implementation.
No decline in calories was found when looking at numbers across the board. Some of the biggest fast food chains, however, did show significant reductions in energy consumption.
Calories consumed at McDonalds, for instance, fell by 5.3 percent. At bakery chain Au Bon Pain, caloric intake dropped by 14.4 percent, and KFC saw a calorie reduction of 6.4 percent. Conversely, energy consumption at the Subway sandwich chain increased by 17.8 percent, which researchers attribute to the company’s tendency to promote large servings.
Customers who did consult the nutritional information – about 15 percent of those surveyed – tended to purchase 106 fewer food calories on average.
While nutritional labeling is a step in the right direction, the researchers concluded that there was more work to do: consumers still need to be educated on how to interpret and use the nutritional information they are provided.